Now, I don’t get the Showtime, or any other fancy premium cable channels, but thank the lord for China and their high-quality bootleg streaming videos. I don’t know what I would do without them. I might have to leave the house once in a while.
Weeds is a great show and I’ve gotten through the first season and will start on the second season tonight. I’m pretty late to jump on the Weeds bandwagon but if there is anyone else out there that hasn’t started watching; shaaaaaame. I found this clip on Youtube and although I’m not there chronologically, I found it funny and informational. So enjoy.
The NYT had an article on the front page which I’m not sure merrited such exposure. It was entitled “Many Florida Jews Express Doubts on Obama“. The article is exactly what you might expect with a title like that and its full of humorous and oft disturbing sentiments and quotations regarding Senator Obama, blacks in general, Muslims, Iran, Israel, and Al Qaeda.
Someone I spoke to was almost outraged that such an article was even written, never mind published on the front page of the New York Times. Yes, I suppose the headline is a little alarming and somewhat inflammatory, but no more so than any other. My favorite headlines appeared back when an MIT student tried to pick up her boyfriend at Logan Airport and was almost shot in the face for wearing a sweatshirt with lights on it. I remember one was on the lines of “MIT student brings fake bomb to airport”, or “Girl straps fake bomb to chest, tries to blow up Logan”. They were hilarious and at the same time they were indicative of a fear-mongering society such as ours.
Fake bomb isn’t even a thing. If something isn’t something else, its not an anti-something. Like Sam Harris has said, that if someone is not an astronomer, they aren’t an anti-astronomer, they are simply not an astronomer. We don’t have to invent words for something that isn’t something else. His argument was against the name of Atheist. I agree with him on that issue incidentally.
The aforementioned article is a good read if you want something to groan about. It is full of ignorant people making poorly informed decisions, most of which seem, at least, to be racist, xenophobic, lunatics who don’t actually do anything. Its not just old Jews in Florida either, so we shouldn’t crap on them too much, but they happen to be part of a pretty sizable demographic cohort. I can’t think of a group of people less deservant (a word?) of attention or social programs: retired people living in gated communities in south Florida. I’ve written about south Florida once or twice and my feelings on the state haven’t changed.
Though its not just retired Jews in south Florida, its every ill-informed idiot in this country. Its about the people who think that if Obama gets into office, he is going to staff it with members of NWA, fundamentalist Muslims, Louis Farrakhan is his running mate after all, and his first order of business is to bomb Israel and sell Iran nuclear weapons. All on the basis of…oh thats right…that’s why they call them baseless assumptions. These folks have not data or facts to base their crudely formed thoughts. I think I’ve figured out what it is. These people who don’t want to vote for him need an excuse why they would vote for a white woman and would not vote for a black man, even though they are ideologically almost identical and policy wise, there really wouldn’t be any notable difference if either were elected. So these twats will vote for John McCain rather than Obama if he were up for the nomination. Are there really that many people in America who hate black people? or are that afraid of what a black president might do? I don’t know, but I sure hope not.
I like Scarlett Johansson, I do, even though she did get married to Ryan Reynolds. When I heard her cover of Tom Waits’ Falling Down, I didn’t know what to think. I didn’t even know she had a record, but evidently she does. After hearing the AOL Sessions version, I have to say, I quite like the rendition. I don’t think she’s particularly talented musically, but this song actually sounds pretty damn good. The vid below is not the sessions version, I just could not figure out how to embed the video so here’s the link.
The banjo is great and I think her vocal style is similar to the gritty nature of Tom Waits so it works. Now she’s not anywhere close to Waits, but on the same sort of plain. Although, if she tries to cover Chocolate Jesus, I might just have to throw a brick at her.
Anyway. Its May and that is a pretty good thing. The summer weather is right around the corner which means plenty of motorbike riding and scantly (or scantily, however you prefer) clad birds. So this morning I broke out a colorful pair of corduroys that have been on the peg since the weather broke. They are pin wale cords and are super comfortable. I bought them at Lands End when they had a super overstock sale and I think they were less than $15. The color is autumn harvest, but they look closer to coral. I usually just wear them with a white OCBD (oxford cloth button down), which I am doing in this photo. Today is was a bit chilly so I also darned a light cashmere v-neck sweater.
I have seen three movies with Hugh Grant since Friday and I’m not going to apologize. He really is one of my favourite actors even though he often has roles in less-than-brilliant films. I saw American Dreamz (dreams with a Z) a couple of weekends ago when it was raining and I was house sitting for my folks while they were on holiday. The movie was total crap, but Hugh Grant was the saving grace, also, Mandy Moore is surprisingly hot in the right light.
This weekend I happened to catch Music and Lyrics and I enjoyed that very much, and in-fact, that is what started the kick. I now can’t seem to get this song out of my head.
I followed that up with Notting Hill, which I had never seen and finished with Love Actually, which I had seen a few years ago when it came to DVD. The two films are really wonderful. I was looking for a picture I hadn’t seen yet and Notting Hill fit the bill.
I haven’t seen the Bridget Jones movies, but I hate Rene Zellwegger enough to never even try seeing them. I own About a Boy and I still think that is one of my favourite movies.
Anyway, there is a little insight into the unsorted recycling bin that is my mind. I like proper movies by famous European directors just as much as I like Hugh Grant movies. Maybe its the octogenarian in me fighting the teenage girl in me…
